“Sales of digital music in the first half of 2006 rose 106% to US$945 million when compared with the first six months of last year. Globally, digital sales now account for 11 percent of the total recorded music market worldwide, up from 5.5 percent in December 2005,” The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reports.

“The US is still leading the digital revolution, with 18 percent of recorded music sales now being made through digital channels. Digital music sales in the US increased by 84 percent to US$ 513 million in the first six months of 2006,” IFPI reports. “Digital music also accounts for a significant part of the overall market in South Korea (51%), Japan (11%), Italy (9%) and the UK (8%).”

“The explosion in digital music services, spurred by consumer demand and a widening array of delivery channels, has seen online and mobile music sales grow from $US134 million in the first half of 2004 to US$945 million in the first half of 2006,” IFPI reports. “In Japan, Italy and Spain mobile dominates the digital market, accounting for 85%, 76% and 78% of overall sales respectively. Online downloading is more prominent in markets such as the UK, Germany and the US, where online sales account for 70%, 69% and 64% of digital sales respectively.”

“Physical music sales declined in the first half period, down by ten percent worldwide. This led to total music sales falling by four per cent in the period to $8.4 billion in trade values (US$13.7 billion in retail values). Piracy and competition for consumer spending contributed to the first half fall,” IFPI reports. “There was growth in some markets, such as Japan (12%), South Korea (5%) and Australia (6%), counter-balanced by declines in Germany (-4%), the US (-7%) and France (-9%).”

IFPI excludes midi files (monophonic and polyphonic), ringtones and non-artist related content sales from these figures. IFPI figures are collected from IFPI members (physical sales) and major record companies (digital sales) and include an estimate for non-reported sales, effectively representing 100% of the market. Retail figures are estimates and represent combined physical and digital sales. For the US, estimated retail values reflect shipments at suggested retail list prices. IFPI figures may differ from locally released figures as a result of adjustments for non-reported sales and small differences in category definitions.

Interestingly, the Sears Christmas Catalogue (yes we still have them in Canada) has a turntable listed in the audio section. Also you can get USB truntables as well if you are feeding into a computer to digitize an album.

I only buy vinyl records. they triumph digital in quality of audio as well as album-art. and they smell nicer too!! shame that they are much more expensive than their digital counterparts… at least they mostly keep (or increase) there value…